49ers...2010 Season Hangs on Week Two Victory...and That Ain't Going to Be Easy!

So I'm back at writing for Bleacher Report as the 2010 NFL season begins. Why? Because the National Football League has many compelling story lines this year as the 'lockout' looms. Oh...and my 49ers get slaughtered on opening day in Seattle making the same old mistakes of the past!

Did you watch the preseason? Did you see that 'same' 49ers? I must admit I became very hopeful this season based on acquisitions and a 4-0 preseason. Here's why the 49ers had a good preseason...it was do or die for so many players it was like the playoffs every week. Here's why they failed on opening day..not enough first string players got in sync with one another and they were "blinded by the light...revved up like a deuce, another runner in the night!" Classic rockers, you get the analogy. In other words...with the preseason success they were smelling there own s... and they got complacent and loose and not buttoned down for the games that matter due to success in the preseason. Especially coming into the always loud and hungry Seahawk home. Who knows...if they'd have kept the same preseason team on the field for Game 1 they may have won!!! But who's to blame? Here what Coach Singletary had to say from the Coach's Notebook on SF49ers.com:

"Very rarely is anybody going to be more critical of me than me. I continue to be a student of the game. I don’t ever say when we lose the game, ‘Man, you guys are awful.’ No, I have work to do. And if there’s something that didn’t happen out there that needed to happen and I failed to see it, I failed to make the right decision, yeah, then I’m going to say, hey you know what guys, that’s on me. And I find myself saying that very often.”

So where did that "something" happen yesterday? Singletary: “It happened all over the place. There’s no one place, there’s no one time. Its like after a game, and somebody asked me why did you go for it? Why did you not just kick a field goal and go up six-nothing? Because I felt that we were going to make it. I mean, that’s why you have fourth-and-one, and you have to make a decision. You know, we made a call, it didn’t work. So do you go back and kick yourself and say why in the heck did I do that? And there were other things in the game- well, why didn’t you call a time-out here? Why don’t you get on the coach more and have him make sure he gets the call out there correct? You know, there are any number of things, but until you play that first game, you can go through preseason and you can be great in the preseason, but until you play that first game, there are some things that maybe during preseason, you think, that’s going to be okay. And you play the first game and you realize, it is definitely not going to be okay, we have got to fix it. And plus, that first game is on the road. Like I said, I think it will serve its purpose very well, but yes, I am critical of myself, as we should all be.”

Yep..I blame the coach I love, Mike Singletary. It's his job to see that they are buttoned down for Game 1 of the regular season and they were anything but that. So now we've played the first game...no more excuses coach. That 'something' that happened "all over the place" must be minimized or eliminated. Game 1 must serve the purpose you suggest. Game 2 is the Super Bowl Champs on Monday night in your House for crying out loud!!! Teams that go 0 and 2 in the regular season statistically have a very hard time making it to the playoffs. The pressure will be intense, but the one thing you have going for your team is that you're at home.

Last year I wrote that Alex Smith has no 'winning' legacy with the Niners to fall back on and say "this is what we will aspire to this year." That still holds true and for this writer and fan, Smith is not the guy that's going to get it done as QB for a playoff caliber Niner team. Sorry, but he's had his day. Move on. Is Carr the guy? Don't see that either. The Saints are coming to town and I'm afraid they're going to put the 'Who Dat' splat on an unfocused Niner team. Hold on Niner fans...could it be that we were 'blinded by the light' as well?